Browse Author

Igor Garlowski

Expat who lived in 3 countries, traveler, passionate about business. Interested in self-development, archery, investing, writing & reading. Loves efficiency and simple solutions. Poland - Denmark - Panama - World. I'd love to make your travelling and life abroad easier - that's why I write :)

Snakes and spiders in Panama

Many people ask themselves what is the risk of going to tropic countries; is everywhere so bad like in the Amazon rainforest; will I die in tropics?!
Here you can see what I have found today within 2 hours – snake (boa) and a spider which hided 4 cm under my hand (under the laptop which was warm).

Reality is not so bad

Yes there are spiders and snakes, Yes some of them are venomous and you can die. However you risk everyday being hit by a car but you still leave your safe home to work, shop and school. You let your children play in a forest where a falling tree can kill it.

Due to statistics there is 10% mortality in Panama from venomous snakes. Due to Norman W. Elton, M.D. Chief of Gorgas Hospital in Panama which article we can read here, there is a small chance we will meet a snake like this and even smaller it will bite us. There are many reasons for that, but the most convincing is that we – humans – are much more dangerous for them that they are for us. Animals are scared of us and will not kill us for fun and entertained how our spice is doing often.

Animals defend themselves

Probably you don’t consider yourself as an aggressive person, now think about a giant that crosses your road and you have no way to hide, but you have a gun. Of course you will try your chance to survive, so it is with animals. Here you have few advices from an expert Norman W. Elton which can help you to avoid unpleasant situation with a snake and many other spices.

a. Do not travel alone in the bush; a companion may see the snake that you do not notice
b. Be well shod. At least do not wear low shoes. Tuck trousers into boots and have trousers loose and baggy.

c. Be watchful when using your hands in climbing or in clearing brush. The native who knows how to use a machete, has a bent stick in his left hand to hold branches and small vegetation prior to clipping it with his machete.

d. When you see a snake, freeze in your tracks until you can estimate the situation. The snake will not attack you, since he will be as much surprised and disturbed as you are, and the chances will be 4 to 1 that he is a nonpoisonous type.

e. If alone and proceeding through snake country, make a lot of noise to give the snakes a chance to get out of your way.

f. Carry in your equipment a rubber sheet (thin late) and a piece of rubber tubing for use as a tourniquet.

g. Be especially watchful at night. This is when the hungry snakes are hunting rodents. They will not be hunting you, but there might be a misunderstanding.

I have got bitten, what to do?!

First of all do not panic. I don’t have to explain how stupid it is, but your heart will start pumping blood faster and kill you quicker – we’d like to avoid it.

Make a picture

Is might sound odd but it will help identify was it toxic and which antidote you should get. It might save your life.

Check the food ball

Is the snake is after hunting and has a ball of food within him, his poison was less dangerous and you have more time.

Do mouth suction

Suck the poison out of the place you have been bitten, or let somebody else do it if you can’t reach the point on your own. Remember to don’t swallow the poison! 😉

Go to the hospital, doctor or anybody who can call them

If you are not sure should you be concern, just go. In the end it’s your health we that might be in danger.

Buses in Panama, Transportation, Traveling

Traveling from Panama City to Playa Venao

Traveling in Panama can be tricky, a specially if we want to change between buses or any other type of transportation which has a schedule. I Europe where I’m from everything is more or less on time. Few months ago I had a chance to visit Budapest – Hungarian capitol. Metro was coming every 3 min with no delay. So how does it look in Panama?

Panamanian Transportation – Traveling

Panama is a small country and so the infrastructure should be easy to make. Everything is in theory connected with the Panama City, however often we have to change for other bus to arrive somewhere. We have a variety of ways to travel from place to place. We can rent a car, travel by public buses, ferries or private transfers including hitchhiking. It’s important to consider the length of your travel to don’t waste too much time, and eventual stops.

Bus

Buses between cities leave often every hour between a morning and afternoon. Prices are small, for over 300 km I have paid 9.70$, it was with an air condition and TV. If you think like I did that 300 km in a bus with an average of 80km/h would take around 3.5 – 4 hours.. you are wrong. Prepare yourself for rather 50km/h or less. It took me 6.5h to travel from Panama City to Playa Venao.
Tip: Take with you some warm clothes, temperature in my bus was lower than in the fridge.

Domestic flights

Locals told me that there is only one domestic airline: Air Panama. As you can imagine, prices without having any competition are very high. There aren’t also too many domestic airports around, Air Panama flies to Bocas del Toro, David, the Darién, and some islands in the Guna Yala and Pearl Island archipelagos. I would suggest this type of transportation only if your time in Panama is very limited.

Car rental

This is a good option, many companies can offer quite low prices starting with 9-10$/ day for a small car, ending on 60-80$ for a big van. Fuel is also very cheap in Panama, so count your money and think won’t it be easier to pay 70-100$ for own car for few days, instead of spending hours in buses or each time 2-10$ on a taxi. Only for traveling from Tocumen Airport to the city and back we’ll spend 60-80$ if we won’t take a public bus.

Private Transportation

Rent a bus

We can rent a small bus for us, which will take us in any destination, which will of course cost but we won’t take any risk of being late: just enter and relax.
Tip:Every bus has included 1h of stop during the travel, so you can take some pictures or eat something in a restaurant on your way.

Take a local bus

I’ll write about those in another posts, but remember that if you are not on the starting station be sure to be there before time and be ready to wait even 30min. Cheap and always late, but with a great local atmosphere.

Hitchhiking

Most of people will stop and take you, a specially in the rural areas. Sometimes there might be no car during 30min of waiting, but unless its full it will stop for sure. It’s also a great opportunity to learn some Spanish and meet locals. I wouldn’t recommend it if we have any schedule for our trip. No risk no fun 🙂

Boat

If you want to see one of the Panamanian islands and you didn’t or couldn’t choose Airlines, you should consider a boat. Here you can find one of the companies and its schedule: Sea Las Perlas.

Be ready to stay in a small city during a night or take a taxi for sometimes even 50km. Local buses are often going once or twice per day, so if you will be late for the last one like I did, you’ll have to pay. I took a bus at 11 from Panama City, arrived in Las Tablas at 17 and last local bus was going at 13.. Adventure! 😉

Panama City – Playa Venao

Take a bus from the bus station (Albrook Bus Station) to Las Tablas (to save money take a bus at 8!). Than in Las Tablas you will catch a direct private bus to Playa Venao. If you will be late, you can take one to Pedasi and change there for Playa Venao or take a cab. Taxi from Las Tablas to Playa Venao should cost between 35$ and 40$.

Hotel in Panama City

It isn’t easy to find a hotel in Panama City which we will be sure about and won’t spend a lot of money. My Panamanian colleague asked about something where we won’t be for sure robbed, pointed a 120$/night one. It is too expensive in a country with such a low salaries so I tried few methods.

How to find accommodation in Panama City.

Couchsurfing

Apparently this method isn’t popular in Panama, and from what I heard in South and Central America in general. out of ~1000 people that were matching my search for 2 people and 1 night, only ~20 were logged in within last month! In the end we got few rejections and mostly no answer. Worth it to try but don’t expect too much.

AirBnB

It’s always my second choice if there is nothing on Couchsurfing. Of course I still try to find some people to meet by CS.

I found out that it’s possible to find a room for 35$, and according to the search there were 23 places on the list, which most of them looked very nice!

However this time my choice was a hotel. AirBnB is in general some effort, talking with hosts, not being sure about the conditions.

Hotels and motels

With a help came Trip Advisor which I haven’t use before, and which is apparently quite popular in Panama. Most of small places had reviews in different languages which was a great help. After a long journey it is very convenient to arrive in the hotel, close the door and rest without wondering about anything.

My choice was Hotel Bella Vista which you can book on booking.com or other similar portal.

A little bit dirty, old, window almost doesn’t work – but the bed is comfortable and air condition works great. In the end it’s a cheap hotel – 35$/room. I would come back there for this price.
Some locals scared me that the district is dangerous and after 20 I should stay inside. Other Panamanians told me later it’s a lie, however I wouldn’t take a risk. Perfect place to stay for one night with a low cost if we are very tired.

Leaving Europe to Panama

So it happened, 28th of June 2015 we left Europe and flew to Panama – first of the Central America countries.

We have spent a long time searching for the best connection. Flight time and price were crucial for us. It ended up that we have taken the best connection due to many people’s opinion: Amsterdam – Panama with KLM airlines.

Few things we had to keep in mind:

Airport

Baggage

Bags could be quite big (158 cm together) however the main one had to be up to 23 kg and the hand baggage 12 kg.

Be early on the airport

Remember to be on the airport two hours before – just in case. A specially if you fly directly from Amsterdam which is very big. We had 25min of walking between gates 🙂

Yellow fever

Prepare your passport, ID and yellow passport, which I hope you have. It’s a document you get after being vaccinated for the yellow fever. They may ask for it but not necessary.

Cash or credit card

As a tourist visa which you probably have, control in Panama can ask you for the prove you can remain yourself in the country. We don’t know what are the conditions for a credit card, however for cash it’s 500 USD.

Plane

We didn’t fly before so far, so we have been surprised how big is the plane and how little space we have in the economy class. On the beginning 11 hours seemed impossible to survive, however with time stewardess start bringing us some drinks, food, dinner and many snacks together with hot towels to refresh ourselves. In the front of everyone is a screen with many good movies, games, TV and music. If you forgot your headphones – it’s not a problem! KLM will give a pair to everyone.
In general you have nothing to worry about. Many clean toilets, places around them to stand for a while and regain feeling in your legs, quite comfortable chairs. Of course it’s not a pleasure, but nobody forbids you to buy 1st class 😉

Moving to Panama

The time came, in two days we are moving to Panama – connection between central and south America; Atlantic and Pacific ocean.

We are a couple that met in Denmark and decided to check is Latin America a better place to live than Europe. We found it quite interesting that we meet here people from around the world, but these from Latin America don’t really want to come to Scandinavian countries – lets check it out!

What do we know until now about Panama? Not so much to be honest for people who will live there for a half of year! After reading about it and asking different people including Panamanians, we believe that:

People are friendly, welcoming and happy. – To be honest it’s quite probable, if you take into consideration their amazing weather – 30-35 degrees every day of the year, stable economy which allows most of the people to have a decent life, and Spanish language which sounds like a music. This culture is made to make people happy.
Everything can kill us. We come from rather a cold climate where if somebody didn’t let it go, there shouldn’t be any spiders, snakes, scorpions, alligators (…) which makes you a part of their food chain! Yep, we gonna be typical Europeans with a stick, amazing amount of anti-mosquito sprays and mosquito net in even the smallest hole we can find in our apartment.
It is one of the best places to be. Seriously, after reading many articles it is hard to imagine why anybody would dislike this country unless you prefer -10 degrees and being alone.

Ps. It’s 26 of June and I sit next to an extra heater, summer didn’t start here yet!

A good tip: keep those numbers!

Situation/Institution	Phone number	Comments
Medical Emergencies	911	Ambulance Coverange in Panama Province, Colon and Cocle until Rio Hato
Police	104	National coverage
Firemen	103	National coverage